


This Means War

by RisemboolRanger



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Action, Adventure, F/M, Fantasy, Friendship, Multi, Romance, Temptation, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-23 23:18:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/627624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisemboolRanger/pseuds/RisemboolRanger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not quite guardian material, Catty Fawkes enjoys spending her eternity playing with fireworks and waging rivalry on her polar opposite. But there's something more sinister going on and the Man in the Moon isn't the only one choosing guardians anymore. Now the threat of a real war is looming closer...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was hard work being a guardian. You spent eternity working to make children happy and keep them believing in you. Because if they didn’t believe, then you began to lose your power. You couldn’t do anything. It was the people around the world – children, most especially – who made guardians who they were. Which was why the guardians had to work so hard to protect them and keep them happy. Keep them believing.

And that was exactly why Catty Fawkes was glad she wasn’t actually a guardian. She felt like she did enough work as it was. She had only a few nations of people around the world who believed in her magic, but that was enough for her. More people meant more work to keep them all happy. 

And she had enough on her plate already. Bonfire Night was her main holiday, though that was only celebrated by a few countries across the world – the United Kingdom and Canada. But on top of that, she also got involved with Independence Day, New Year’s Eve, Diwali, the Chinese New Year and other exclusive occasions that people held around the globe.

Before she’d been chosen, she’d been living in the shadows. So not being seen by most people now didn’t bother her in the slightest. She was happy enough to just get on with what she was supposed to do.

Sometimes, she did get lonely always being on her own. It was often fun to harass the other guardians, but they all had their own work to do and it never stayed fun for long before they really lost their patience with her. They never classed as real company. As real fun.

But fortunately, there was somebody else whom she could derive endless amounts of entertainment from. The cold to her heat. The ice to her fire. Her polar opposite...

Jack Frost.

Now, he was somebody who appreciated what it meant to _not_ be a guardian. Apparently, no matter how much she tried to hassle the other guardians, she’d still never be as much of a nuisance to them, or anybody else, as Jack Frost was. He was quite literally a master of trouble.

But that didn’t necessarily mean that she liked Jack Frost... Oh, no. If anything, it was completely the opposite. When you had been chosen, yet still weren’t believed in, there was only so much you could do to keep yourself entertained. The powers that Catty had gained when she’d been chosen had only amused her for so long. Until she’d realised the benefit of using them on other people, that is.

She’d fast learnt that causing trouble for others was one of the most entertaining ways to fill her time. And with the powers she’d been given, it was pretty easy for her to cause the mayhem that she wanted. The only problem was that Jack Frost had figured out the same thing. And he was notoriously better at it.

And that just made Catty’s blood boil.

Catty had always hated snow. Well, that was what she told herself anyway. In all honesty, she was just being petty and it wasn’t actually true. Every child, every teenager and even a fair few adults loved to build snowmen, create snow angels, go sledging down snowy hills... Catty hadn’t really been an exception to that, no matter how much she insisted otherwise.

Now, however, she genuinely did dislike the snow. After years of being hit in the face with snowballs, slipping on the ice, being drenched by freak snowfalls from the rooftops... Though of course, they were never ‘freak’ accidents. None of it was. It was all very much done on purpose by the boy that she’d been competing with for several decades now.

Which was why she was so damn pleased that she’d been gifted with the ability to melt snow and ice. And that was also what made the dislike between them very mutual. If there was one thing Jack Frost didn’t like, it was his mischief going to waste.

Catty settled down onto one of the rooftops, melting the snow around her so that she could sit more comfortably. She could feel the cold, but it didn’t actually bother her. Her body ran on too high a temperature for her to be bothered by cold. It was more the damp that she didn’t like.

It was always easy to tell where Jack Frost had been, much the same as the other guardians and anyone else who had been chosen. Their work always left a distinctive mark on the world. Catty sat with one knee up close to her face, the other leg swinging languidly in the air as she lazily melted away lines of snow, undoing what Jack had created.

She didn’t wield as much control over fire as she would have liked – it wasn’t her main gift, after all – but she certainly had enough to do things like this. And this was one of her favourite pastimes.

_Wham_. Something cold and wet hit her in the side of the head, splattering on impact. Catty was on her feet in an instant, shaking the soggy mass out of her hair, ready to fight back. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the culprit was.

“And here I thought you’d already made enough mess around here,” she said, running one hand over the side of her fire-coloured hair that the snowball had hit, drying it instantly with the heat surging from her fingertips. “I didn’t expect you to still be hanging around.”

Jack landed on the rooftop. Spirals of frost appeared with every step of his bare feet, re-covering the patches of the roof that Catty had already cleared. “Well, I’ve learnt to hang back, since you always seem to get here afterwards and ruin everyone’s fun.”

“I don’t ruin anyone’s fun,” argued Catty, keeping her hands ready in case she needed to start throwing things back. With Jack, that was always a definite possibility. “Nobody wants your stupid snow.”

“Are you totally clueless?” asked Jack disbelievingly, leaning casually against the wooden staff that he always carried. “Kids _love_ snow. A lot more than they love fireworks.”

“Yeah, right,” scoffed Catty, gesturing to the snow on the ground around them that had already started to become trodden into a grey sludge. “There is no way that kids would prefer _this_... to this.” She conjured up a small starburst and threw it into the air, where it exploded into a golden flower of lights and glitter.

“Not bad – I’ll give you that one,” shrugged Jack. “But you see, the thing with fireworks is that after about the fifth or sixth one, they start to get... boring.” A snowball materialised in Jack’s free hand. “Yet, no matter how many snowballs you throw, that’s _always_ entertaining.”

Catty knew to dodge this time, so when Jack threw the snowball at her, it simply sailed past as she quickly skipped aside. She produced another starburst, now definitely ready to fight back. Only when she looked round, Jack had taken flight and disappeared. It wasn’t like him to give up so easily and run away. She kept the small firework in her hand, just in case.

“You know...” Catty jumped as she heard Jack’s voice behind her. She whirled round to find him balancing on a chimney, looking smug. “You could use a little blue in that dress.”

He pointed his staff at the cherry red, rainbow-patterned dress that she always wore. Tiny licks of blue frost danced their way up the hem. Catty discarded the starburst that was still in her hand and impatiently shot a line of sparks at her dress instead, instantly melting the frost away.

“I don’t think so,” she said indignantly. “Blue’s the opposite of red. Don’t you know that opposites don’t go?”

“Well, technically, the opposite of red is green,” said Jack annoyingly, hopping back down onto the roof beside her. He crouched down and pointed at her dress again, though this time with his finger. “And it looks like there’s some of that in there too...”

Catty skipped back away from him, feeling irritated. “Try that again and you’re gonna get a firework in your face.”

Jack straightened up and followed her across the rooftop, his trademark smirk on his face. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s dangerous to play with fireworks?”

Catty conjured up another firework in her hand. “Why don’t we test it on you and find out?” she threatened lightly. “Here... I made this one blue especially just for _you_.”

With that last word, she tossed the firework at Jack, who ducked automatically. It burst into a flurry of blue and silver stars behind him. He pushed off into the air, floating above her with a grin on his face. “Aww, you shouldn’t have. Glad to see I’ve had an affect on your work.”

Catty gritted her teeth and fired another long line of sparks at him. He avoided those too, easily floating out of the way. Right. If he was going to play that way, then so was she. It was time to fight fire with... Well. You get the gist.

Using her fireworks as propulsion, like she always did, she zoomed up into the air after Jack. Jack grinned when he saw her coming and flew up even higher, using his staff to rain snowflakes down on her. “Now that’s more like it!”

Catty dodged around the worst of the snow and melted the rest of it with small bursts of heat and sparks. She whipped up several more fireworks and threw them alternately at Jack as she flew higher too. He managed to dodge all of them and retaliated by creating and throwing more snowballs.

This was a regular occurrence. The people of the towns around the area were probably always very confused by the freak snowstorms and unexplained displays of fireworks, but what did Catty and Jack care about what people thought? They weren’t guardians. They didn’t have to follow the same rules. 

This was the kind of fun that they enjoyed. Even if it was at each other’s expense. The mutual challenge between them had never changed.

Catty landed on one of the chimney tops, rotating her arm in a circular motion to create a kind of mobile Catherine wheel. Catherine wheels were her specialty – they were her namesake, after all.

“Catch!” she called gleefully, pitching it like it was a Frisbee.

It whistled through the air and Jack had to back flip to avoid it. The Catherine wheel hit the side of the building behind him, exploding spectacularly into a rainbow of stars. It didn’t even leave a mark. That was part of Catty’s magic. Her fireworks weren’t dangerous. Unless she wanted them to be.

But in this case, she didn’t hold quite that much animosity against Jack Frost. She knew first-hand how dangerous fireworks could really be.

“You must be losing your touch – your aim’s getting worse,” Jack goaded.

“It’s not my aim,” Catty countered as she took flight again. “It’s because it’s like trying to swat an annoying gnat that won’t sit still.”

“I take that as a compliment.”

Catty feinted shooting sparks again and Jack dodged to the left, like she’d hoped he would. She followed it quickly with another starburst, which hit its mark this time and burst into red, gold and green sparks in Jack’s face.

He yelped in surprise and automatically shielded his eyes, almost dropping his staff. Catty giggled. Now this was more like it. As much as she hated to admit it, it was quite difficult to catch Jack Frost off guard. But then he had been chosen before she had – he’d had a lot more practice at causing trouble.

“Now that’s just playing dirty,” said Jack, still floating in mid-air and trying to rub his eyes free of the colourful specks that were dancing before them.

“Oh, you’d know all about playing dirty,” said Catty. She touched down on another rooftop, intending to create another Catherine wheel.

“Another compliment,” said Jack lightly. 

He pointed the wooden staff down at her and whirls of frost shot from the end of it. The rooftop turned icy beneath Catty’s boots and her feet slipped out from underneath her. Fortunately, she’d been prepared for something like that and was able to use her fireworks to right herself and get back up into the air.

But what she wasn’t prepared for was the sudden wave of snow that Jack then cast down on top of her. The weight of it knocked her back down onto the rooftop and off her feet. She landed ungainly on her butt with a bump. Jack burst out laughing somewhere above her in the air.

“Didn’t see that one coming, did you?” he laughed.

Damn him. Catty struggled back to her feet on the icy surface, scowling and shaking snow out of her hair and face. She ran her hand over her hair again to try and dry it a second time, but this time, her power sparked and sputtered several times before she actually got any heat out of it.

Crap. Though she could generally summon enough heat for small tasks, it didn’t work that well if she was already too soaked. After all, a firework couldn’t start if it was wet. Damn that Jack Frost...

Catty managed to dry herself enough to get her fireworks going so that she could get back into the air. She’d kept it an utmost secret that her powers were rendered useless if she was too wet. She definitely didn’t want Jack to find out – who knew what measures he’d resort to if he discovered her main weakness.

She felt the urge to say something cheesy and cliché. _You may have won this round, but the war’s not over yet._ But she didn’t really want to draw attention to the fact that she was taking flight too soon. So instead, she shot off another display of fireworks into the air, trying to build her power back up.

“I think I’m gonna bounce before I get bored,” she called casually, feigning a yawn. “Catch you later, Mr. Freeze.”

“What; you’re giving up already?” Jack grinned, looking amused.

“I’m just worried that the more time I spend with you, the more I may want to start using real explosives.”

She ducked the next snowball that came her way and zoomed off, laughing to herself. Once she was safely out of sight, she started flying lower to the ground, just in case her powers did suddenly decide to conk out. Her hair and dress were still quite damp. Urgh.

She drifted along lazily just a few feet above the ground. She didn’t really have anywhere to call a home anymore. Before she’d been chosen, she’d lived in England. But the United Kingdom wasn’t really for her. It was always wet and most of the people there were just too miserable.

Now she generally hung around wherever she wanted. Nobody could see her, so what did she have to worry about? The one thing that she made sure of, however, was that she was always very far away from Jack Frost when she decided to kick back and relax. She certainly wouldn’t put it past him to blow ice in her ears whilst she was sleeping.

“Nice dress.”

Catty stopped in her tracks and looked around. The voice had stood out, sounded so clear, as if it had been speaking to her. She spotted a young man leaning casually against a lamppost, smoking a cigarette. He appeared to be in his early twenties, with quite long, black hair that seemed to have been styled purposely to look untidy.

He didn’t seem to be taking any notice of the people around him. Instead, he was looking straight at her. He could _see_ her. And he didn’t seem at all perturbed at the fact that she was floating in mid-air. He had to be a guardian. Either that or he was like her. Chosen by the Man in the Moon, yet still not quite guardian material.

She landed lightly on the street next to him, feeling curious. “Are you a guardian?”

“Not exactly,” he said smoothly with a brief smile. “If anything, I’d say I’m more like you. You’re Catherine Fawkes – the firework girl – aren’t you?”

“Catty,” she corrected him automatically.

“Catty,” the guy repeated, like the name was an amusing anecdote. He didn’t look away from her once. His eyes were a brilliant shade of emerald green. They were almost unreal.

“Err, so... who are you?” asked Catty.

“Who am I?” The guy looked thoughtful, the cigarette burning down between his fingers as he paused. “I’ve been given quite a few names. Sometimes I go by Bo. And sometimes Dante... But lately, everyone seems to be calling me Temp. So I guess that’s cool too.”

“Temp...” said Catty slowly. And he’d thought the name Catty was amusing. “So you were chosen too?”

“Chosen? Is that what you’d call it?” asked Temp, looking amused. “If you and I aren’t actually guardians, then what the hell were we chosen for?”

Catty didn’t know what to say. It was a question she’d never been able to answer in all these years. “I guess I don’t really know.”

“Hey, don’t look so glum about it,” said Temp optimistically, taking a drag of his cigarette and then blowing the smoke out in one long breath. “As long as you can find your own ways to occupy your time, then _not_ being a guardian is actually a hell of a lot of fun. No rules, no responsibilities... Just the freedom to use your powers as you please. Am I right?”

That was exactly what Catty had always thought. She wasn’t tied down like the other guardians were. She just had to find her own entertainment to keep things interesting. “Right,” she agreed.

She had no idea who this guy was. He’d literally appeared out of nowhere, yet he seemed to understand her situation perfectly. Maybe there was more to not being a guardian. Maybe she didn’t have to feel at such a loss all the time. And maybe she didn’t have to spend so much time competing with that damned Jack Frost in an attempt to derive just a bit of entertainment.

Again, Temp seemed to follow her thought trail exactly. “And you do so by waging wars on Jack Frost, right?”

Catty frowned at the mention of his name. “How do you know that?”

Temp laughed. “Everyone knows that. We’ve all heard about the poor townspeople around here who think that the freak snow and light displays are signs of an apocalypse.”

“Seriously?” Wow. People were dumb. That was another reason that Catty was glad she wasn’t as much a part of their world anymore.

“Seriously,” Temp grinned. He then gave Catty a pointed look up and down, taking in her slightly bedraggled hair and still sodden dress. “But from the looks of it, I’m guessing that the snow won out this time.”

Catty scowled, suddenly feeling annoyed and self-conscious. She hated losing. Even more so when other people were aware of it. “He wishes,” she said stoutly. “I just decided to leave early.”

That seemed to amuse Temp even more. “I’m sure you did.”

His attitude annoyed Catty even further – her temper as short as always, like it was the fire in her. Suddenly, the idea of somebody else understanding her situation didn’t seem that interesting anymore. This stranger didn’t know her. She was done with this conversation. “Speaking of leaving, I should get going,” she said shortly.

“Oh?” Temp’s smile didn’t falter. “In that case, I hope to see you around... Though I’m sure I will.”

“Right...” said Catty slowly.

She had no idea what Temp actually did, so she didn’t know where to expect him to turn up or how to tell if he’d already been in the area. But she wasn’t quite rude enough to ask. Whether they were a guardian or not, the people who had been chosen by the Man in the Moon took what they did seriously. Asking what it was that they did, or saying that you’d never heard of them before, was considered quite offensive. It suggested that the magic they put into the world had gone to waste.

“I’ll keep an eye out for you. And you should do the same,” Temp advised. “We’re very similar, you and I. I can help you to feel more accepted. I can give you a purpose.”

Catty said nothing. Even though she wasn’t quite human anymore, she still knew better than to start taking up offers from strangers. She didn’t know Temp. And she certainly didn’t know if she could trust him or not.

He didn’t seem to be bothered by her silence. “Oh, and if you ever happen to run into Cupid and Psyche, any Wisps or even the Boogeyman... Then tell them that ol’ Temp says hi.”

Catty raised her eyebrows. She didn’t know that much about any of the people he’d just mentioned either. “Friends of yours?”

“Something like that,” said Temp with a smile. “Happy flying, firework girl.”

Catty took that as her cue to leave. Using her boosters, she pushed back up into the air and zipped off down the street. She took one look back to see Temp still watching her, taking another drag on his cigarette. She shook her head and continued on her way. That had definitely been a weird encounter.

She had a feeling that things were going to start getting more interesting around here. But the question was, was that what she actually wanted?


	2. Rough and Tumble

After being chosen by the Man in the Moon, it was all about knowing how to fill your time. Eternity was a long time to be bored, after all.

Catty happened to enjoy people watching. Whenever she wasn’t putting her magic towards fireworks displays or running around causing trouble and starting fights with Jack Frost, she liked to wander along aimlessly and simply observe the people around her.

And that was exactly what she was doing now. She skipped along the road absentmindedly, watching the people on the street who couldn’t see her in return, who didn’t know that they were being watched. People were interesting. They had no idea of the amount of entertainment they gave Catty just by going about their lives as normal.

When she got bored of a town, she’d take flight again and then end up landing somewhere different instead, where she’d repeat the whole process. The next town that she touched down in had a light frosting of snow covering the rooftops and the parked cars along the street. Oh, fantastic...

It had been a while since their last fight. And Catty had been quite good over the last few weeks, so now she was itching to start throwing fireworks again. She wondered if Jack would still be around like he had last time. Well, there was an easy way to find out.

She took off into the air and started building up sparks in her hand. She entertained herself for a little while, using the sparks to melt squiggles and shapes into the snow. But it eventually became apparent that she wasn’t going to be interrupted any time soon.

Catty frowned to herself. Well, that was a bummer. Now what was she going to do for fun? It looked like it was back to people watching.

She stayed airborne this time and decided to head on to the next town over. She jetted along with her fireworks boosters at the same level as the highest windows of the houses around her, stopping occasionally to peep inside a few of them and see if there was anything interesting going on. Or anyone who looked like they could do with having a few fireworks thrown inside the room.

As she reached the outskirts of the town, where it joined onto snowy fields, she spotted a white-haired and blue-clad figure lounging in one of the trees. _Perfect_.

He was busy watching a group of kids who were playing on the opposite side of the road. Catty started to form a firework in her hand, but then quickly discarded it when she had a better idea. She knelt down to grab a handful of snow and mashed it into a rough ball shape. She was betting that Jack Frost had never been hit with a snowball in his entire life. And now he was going to know what it felt like.

Catty threw the snowball as hard as she could. It sailed through the air and landed right on target, hitting Jack hard in the side of the head. Catty giggled as he almost fell out of the tree in surprise. But he was suddenly up on his feet again, balancing on the branch and quickly looking round from side to side. He seemed almost... eager.

Then he spotted Catty, who promptly started laughing again. The side of his face and hair were both sopping wet. “Thought you could do with a taste of your own medicine!” she called.

But to her surprise, she saw disappointment wash over Jack’s face. He didn’t look like he was in the mood to fight back. In fact, he seemed disappointed that it was her who had thrown the snowball. But then who else would it have been?

Catty opened her mouth to make some kind of light comment, but before she could do so, Jack clutched his wooden staff tighter and suddenly zoomed off into the sky, heading back into the town that Catty had just come from. What the hell?

“Throwing in the towel then?” she shouted after him, even though she knew he wouldn’t be able to hear her from such a distance. She touched back down onto the ground. Well, that was a big waste of time. What use was Jack Frost if he wasn’t going to fight back?

“I think you might’ve hit a nerve there.”

Catty jumped. It was that voice again, as clear as if it was inside her very head. She found Temp standing behind her with an amused smirk on his face, which she guessed was his usual expression. “You again!”

“Yes, me again,” agreed Temp, amusement lacing his tone as well. “Are you saying there’s something wrong with that?”

Catty just shrugged. “S’pose not.” She couldn’t really remember what her issue had been with him a few weeks ago. “And what did you mean by I hit a nerve?”

Temp answered her question with one of his own. “Didn’t you see how disappointed he looked when he saw that it was you who’d thrown the snowball?”

Catty frowned. “Well, who else would it have been?” As far as she knew, nobody could see Jack. Only few people believed in her, but Jack Frost literally had no one.

Temp gestured carelessly towards the group of kids who had now started building a rather crooked snowman. “He hoped it was one of them.”

“But I thought nobody could see him,” said Catty, feeling confused.

“They can’t,” Temp confirmed. “That’s why I said hoped.”

Catty’s frown deepened. “And how do you know that’s what he thought?”

Temp looked thrilled that she’d asked. “Because that’s my gift. You have your fireworks and your little sparklers... But I know what it is that people want. I know that one thing that each individual desires most in life.”

Catty’s frown turned curious. “Really?” It may not have been a physical power like hers, and ones that she was generally used to, but it did sound interesting.

“Really,” Temp confirmed. “And that’s a little bit of helpful info for you. They always say know your enemy, right? So now you know what Jack Frost wants more than anything.”

“He just wants to be seen?”

Temp nodded. “Or at least know why no one can see him.”

“Huh...” Catty didn’t know what to think about that. She’d never really seen that side of Jack before. To her, it seemed like all he wanted was to cause trouble for everyone else. But she had a feeling that Temp was telling the truth. She’d certainly seen it reflected in Jack’s reaction earlier.

“It’s an interesting one, isn’t it?” Temp mused. He clearly had an idea of what Catty was thinking. “But I have to say that yours is more interesting still...”

“Mine?” Catty repeated, a little taken aback.

“Oh, don’t think that you’re exempt from this,” said Temp. “I know exactly what it is that you want too. Or more... what you _don’t_ want.”

“So you don’t know what I want then,” Catty challenged, more bravely than she felt.

“Only because you don’t know either,” Temp pointed out. “For the most part, you don’t really care. You could belong like this for the rest of your life – neither human nor guardian. Just as long as you don’t go back to how you used to look.”

Catty clenched her fists automatically and glared at him. Only one other person knew about her life before she’d been chosen and even that felt like one person too many – though she couldn’t really complain about that, since it was because of that very person that she had been chosen by the Man in the Moon. But she certainly didn’t like Temp being able to get inside her head so easily like that.

“Congratulations,” she said dryly through gritted teeth. “But I don’t remember saying I needed you to tell me that.”

“Oh, so I’ve touched a nerve with you too!” Temp looked delighted.

“You haven’t ‘touched’ anything,” argued Catty. “I really couldn’t care less about what you can do or what you want. Just quit following me around.”

With that, she took off to the skies once more in a shower of red and gold stars. And she most definitely didn’t look back. If she saw the mysterious Temp again, then it would be too soon.

**XXX**

A few days later, Catty happened upon her old rival yet again, though this time, it was by accident. She’d been floating outside a church, inspecting one of the intricate stained glass windows and wondering why they were such a big deal. She liked the colours, but the pictures themselves weren’t exactly pretty.

She’d been trying to decide just what it was about the proportions of the people illustrated in the glass that looked so off, when she noticed something blur past behind her in the reflection. She turned to see what it was and narrowly avoided the snowball that had been aimed at her face. It hit the window instead with a satisfying splat.

“Hey, you were supposed to let it hit you. You could have broken that window.”

“Sorry, _I_ could have broken it?” Catty repeated disbelievingly. “You were the one who threw that stupid snowball!”

“Yeah, but you were supposed to block it with your head,” Jack grinned, hovering a way behind her. He pulled another snowball together out of the air. “Like this!”

Catty ducked and zoomed downwards, hearing the snowball hit the window like the first one. Jack followed, armed with yet another ball of snow. Catty turned abruptly and flew higher so that he zipped straight underneath her, shooting a line of sparks at him as he went past.

The sparks arced over him so close to his head that Jack felt sure they’d almost singed his hair. He jerked sideways out of the line of fire, swatting his white hair with his free hand. The sparks carried on towards the ground, dispersing as they hit the frost-covered grass.

“Hey, you were supposed to block that,” Catty taunted from higher up still. “You could have set the grass on fire.”

“You wish,” Jack scoffed. “Your powers aren’t that strong.”

“Err, if I’m not mistaken, fire beats ice any day,” Catty pointed out.

“But water then beats fire.”

“Water’s not even your power! It’s just a sad result of what happens after I’m done with you.”

Jack’s retaliation to that was another snowball. It skimmed Catty’s arm as she tried to avoid it. Annoyed, she conjured a starburst between her fingers, but Jack was faster and able to create a second snowball first. Catty threw the starburst mere milliseconds before the snowball could reach her, causing it to explode into a flurry of glitter and wet mush.

She managed to dodge the worst of it and zoomed down closer towards the ground, using the heat waves from her hands to melt lines through the fresh frost that Jack had no doubt formed not long before. Of course, this provoked him into chasing after her again.

He flew above and pointed the wooden staff that he always carried at her. Spirals of ice spun from the end of it and momentarily coated Catty’s shoulder in a thin sheet of frost, sending a shiver down her spine. She careered rather ungainly out from underneath him, trying to melt the ice at the same time.

“Nice to see you’re back to your dirty old tricks,” she called sarcastically, as he came to rest in one of the nearby trees, watching her in amusement.

“Aww, did you miss me that much?” Jack teased.

“Like a hole in the head,” retorted Catty. “But at least I don’t sulk when I get hit by a snowball, unlike some people.”

Jack’s grin never wavered. “Hey, even I’m allowed bad days.”

Bad days, huh? He didn’t show any resentment over what had happened the other day. No indication of whether Temp’s explanation had been true. He seemed nothing other than back to his usual self. Well... At least Catty wouldn’t have to feel guilty about this.

“If you say so.” She swung her arm round in a spiral motion, conjuring up a rocket. “Then this is gonna be a real bad one for you!”

She lobbed the rocket at Jack as hard as she could. He only just dropped out of the tree in time – the explosion showered him in a rainbow of stars and sparks as the rocket hit the tree. As usual, Catty’s handiwork left no marks behind. It was more just the principal of how close she’d come to hitting him that got under Jack’s skin.

Jack stepped back up into the air, floating upwards until he was level with the top of the tree. He made himself another snowball out of the air around him. “If that’s the way you wanna play...”

Catty followed his lead. She formed a new starburst in her hand, using her free one to conjure up sparks. If she could melt the snowball before Jack threw it, then she’d have the upper hand and she’d already be prepared with ammo of her own.

She grinned. “Bring it on.”

They both started towards each other in the same second. It felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Catty readied the sparks in her hand, but before she could throw them, something suddenly exploded in the space between them, knocking them both out of the air and blinding them with a brilliant white light.

Catty rolled several feet across the ground before coming to a halt. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and hastily rearranged her dress. What the hell had just happened?

The same thing had clearly happened to Jack, because she heard a distinct grumble of, “What the...”

As the spots caused by the white light disappeared from her eyes, Catty saw the source of the explosion. A swirling magic portal had appeared in the air between them. She’d never seen one herself before, but as far as she knew, there was only one person who could be responsible for something like that.

Before she could think any further along those lines, she noticed something even better. Jack had dropped his staff. He always carried that thing with him everywhere – it was quite literally the source of his powers. Without it, he couldn’t do anything. If she could get to it first, then she’d surely win this round, right?

She didn’t waste anymore time thinking about it. Completely forgetting about the portal that had interrupted them in the first place, Catty scrambled to her feet and made a break for the staff. Unfortunately for her, Jack realised instantly what she was doing and quickly jumped up after her. 

“Hey! Don’t even think about it!”

Catty didn’t get very far before Jack literally tackled her to the ground. “What do you think you’re doing?” she spluttered. “Get off me!”

“You’re the one who’s trying to take something that doesn’t belong to you! You know that’s called theft, right?” Jack pointed out, grabbing Catty’s hands since she was trying to aim sparks in his face.

“Come on, it’s not like I was going to keep it. I just wanted to see if I could do anything with it.”

“No way. You use your powers and I’ll use mine.”

With that, Jack clambered off of her and tried to make a beeline for the abandoned staff that was only a few feet away from them. Catty latched onto his leg as he went to run, so that he crashed back down onto the ground a second time.

“Come on, cut it out!” he protested, trying to kick her off. “Will you give it up already?”

“Only if you beat me to it,” Catty challenged him. She attempted to scramble past, but Jack threw himself at her again.

Dammit! She was almost there – the staff was just inches away from them. She tried turning from one side to the other and was just about able to throw Jack off. She rolled him over, still trying to pin him down so that she could get the upper hand. If she was just a bit closer, then she’d actually be able to stretch out and reach the staff...

“ _Rádi bóga_ , I should have known,” said a new voice.

Before Catty could even look up, she and Jack were both pulled roughly off the ground and then set back on their feet. Startled and forgetting their fight entirely, Catty turned around and found herself facing a man who everyone knew by sight, but whom she had never met herself.

“...Santa?”

“Call me North,” said the man in a thick Russian accent. He was tall and very well-built with tattoos reaching up both arms and a long white beard that matched his hair. “So I come here to see one naughty child and I get two!”

“Hey, I’ve been pretty good lately. I haven’t even tried to get into your workshop this month,” said Jack casually. He’d quickly retrieved his staff the first chance he’d got, much to Catty’s annoyance. “You must be looking for her.”

“No, I was looking for you,” North responded. “But actually... I can talk to both of you.”

“Both of us?” Catty repeated. She didn’t understand what Santa Claus, of all people, could possibly want with the two of them. “What do you want us for?”

“Not just me,” replied North. “The other guardians as well.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “What; you want to enlist us or something? Because I’m not interested in becoming a guardian.”

“Don’t think of it as enlisting. Think of it more as... short-term project,” said North optimistically.

Jack’s eyebrows rose even higher. “So basically you want me to do work? Sorry, but that’s not happening. You should have known that.”

He clutched the wooden staff in his hand and made to fly off, but North grabbed him by the neck of his hoody before he could get more than a few feet off the ground. “Not so fast, Jack. Hear me out first.”

“Let go of me!” Jack protested. Catty giggled. She had a feeling that not many people could get the upper hand over Jack Frost like that. Jack gave her an annoyed look. “I would have thought that you wouldn’t be interested in doing work either.”

“Hey, I’m just here to enjoy the show,” Catty grinned.

“No. Like I said, this involves both of you,” North interrupted.

“Ha,” said Jack childishly.

North gave him a shake irritably. “Are you that childish, Jack Frost? Now just give me few minutes to explain first and then you can make decision.”

“Okay, okay,” said Jack, attempting to loosen North’s grip on his hoody. “If I agree to hear you out, then will you put me down?”

“Deal,” agreed North. He then dropped Jack on the ground.

“Ow! Was that really necessary?” Jack grumbled as he landed hard on his butt. Catty couldn’t quite stifle another giggle and that just annoyed him even further. “That’s it, fireworks girl!”

He swung the staff round and shot a beam of ice at her. Fortunately, Catty had seen it coming and dove out of the way. She rolled all the way over until she was back on her feet and began conjuring up a starburst – one significantly bigger than what she normally used.

“Enough!” shouted North. He’d produced a wide-bladed sword seemingly out of nowhere and swung it into the ground between them with such force that it shook and knocked them both off their feet again.

“He started it,” Catty muttered immaturely, pulling herself back up.

North was not impressed. “I said enough!” A second sword was now in his hand, which he shook menacingly in Catty’s face. “You will stop fighting like children for two minutes and you will _listen_.”

“Fine,” Catty grumbled.

“Fine,” Jack agreed reluctantly, getting back to his feet.

“Good.” North pulled the first sword back out of the ground. “Now... I came to tell you something big is happening. Man in Moon is no longer only one choosing guardians.”

“He isn’t? But who else is?” asked Catty, surprised.

“We don’t know,” replied North.

“That’s helpful,” Jack muttered. North shot him an irritated look and he raised his hands defensively. “Sorry. Carry on.”

“We don’t know what these new guardians are being chosen for, but it’s nothing good,” North explained. “Whoever is behind it has also started trying to turn other guardians.”

“What do you mean, turn?”

“I mean that Cupid is no longer guardian of love. He is now guardian of pain and despair,” said North gravely. “He doesn’t help people anymore. He is no longer on our side.”

“I didn’t know that was possible,” said Catty. “Can a guardian’s role really change like that?”

“If they choose wrong path, yes,” replied North. “Now we don’t know who to trust. We need to find out who is choosing guardians, who is working for them and who is next target.”

“And you want us to help investigate.” Jack made it a statement rather than a question.

North nodded. “We need every help we can get.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but there are plenty of things I’d much rather do than play detective,” said Jack. “You’ll have to find someone else.”

“So you turn your back on us?” said North, sounding remarkably calm.

“Hey, I’m not a guardian, remember?” Jack pointed out. “I’ve never been a part of your little group. I’m not turning my back on anyone.”

“Guardian or not, you are still like us,” North insisted.

“No, I’m not! I’m nothing like you!” Jack snapped. “And do you know why? Because the Man in the Moon actually _talks_ to you guys! Whereas me, he doesn’t give a damn about. No, he just threw me into this sucky life and expected me to deal with it alone for all eternity.”

“Jack...” started North.

“No!” Jack cut him off, slamming his staff against the ground. “Nobody has ever cared about me, so why should I help you?”

With that, he took off into the sky once more. This time North didn’t try to stop him. Catty stared after him. In all the years that she’d known Jack, she’d never seen him blow up like that. She’d actually never seen him angry at all – the most she’d ever seen from him was annoyance when she actually managed to get one over on him.

Just how much of a cover up was his usual devil-may-care attitude? She would never have believed it possible until now, but she actually felt a little sorry for him.

“What about you, Catherine?” North asked. “What’s your decision?”

Catty bit her lip. She didn’t even bother correcting him on the name. She couldn’t help thinking that Jack was right. Unless you were a guardian too, then the Man in the Moon and the other guardians really didn’t seem to care about you. They just left you to fend for yourself.

Temp had also been right when he’d said that Catty didn’t really know what she wanted. It was true. And because of that, she didn’t want to tie herself to anything or anyone else – nothing other than the simple desire to just enjoy whatever was thrown at her in this life. As long as she didn’t go back to the life she had before then, she was happy.

She didn’t want to join forces with the guardians in any way, shape or form. She just wanted to carry on doing what she’d always done. For now anyway. At least until she did figure out what she actually wanted.

“I’m not sure,” she said hesitantly. “I think I’d rather just stay out of it all.”

North sighed. “I cannot force you to help. Just remember what I said and be careful. Not everyone is as they seem.”

“Right...” His words made Catty realise something. “You said you don’t know who you can trust, right? So how come you trust me and Jack? What makes you think we haven’t been ‘turned’ like you said Cupid was?”

North just laughed at her questions. “Because you and Jack Frost do not care about anything more than causing trouble for each other. Nothing more devious than that.”

Catty couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah, I guess you’re not wrong there.”


	3. Back and Forth

Though she'd told herself she didn't want any involvement in anything bigger than making fireworks and having the occasional starburst and snowball fight, Catty couldn't get everything that had happened out of her head.

Jack had said that nobody cared about them if they weren't a guardian. Temp had basically implied pretty much the same thing too; that they were just left to their own devices for no real reason. Even North - a guardian himself - hadn't quite been able to deny it. Yet he and the other guardians had still expected them to help.

Not to mention it wasn't like the guardians to ask non-guardians for assistance. Was there really something bigger going on? And was Catty making the right choice by refusing to help? She wasn't sure what to do anymore.

"Bee in your bonnet?"

Catty looked round from the newspaper dispenser she'd been sitting on. Temp was leaning casually against the wall behind her, wearing a red silk shirt that clashed quite amazingly with his raven hair. He hadn't been stood there a minute ago - he must have snuck up without her even noticing. Clearly decades of being on a wary lookout for Jack Frost still wasn't enough to completely hone her senses just yet.

"What's it to you?" she asked grumpily. Her recent confusion had been starting to bother her. She'd been happy with her life how it was. But now that she'd started questioning it and doubting the other guardians, she'd been starting to dislike this static state more and more. 

"You know, considering your resentment towards me, I've never actually done anything to you," Temp pointed out, unruffled by her attitude.

He did have a point. His attitude may have grated on Catty a little before, but had he ever actually done anything wrong? The answer was no - she'd just been jumping to judgemental conclusions like usual. She really needed to stop doing that. Especially seeing as there weren't many people around who could actually see her, let alone talk to her.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry if I sounded snappy," she apologised grudgingly. "But for the record, following someone around isn't exactly normal behaviour."

"I guess you could say I find it difficult to make friends." Temp shrugged. "Don't you ever feel like that? Seeing as you're a fellow chosen-but-not-chosen, if you know what I mean."

"Can't say I've ever really tried," said Catty truthfully. When you had a lifestyle designated by the Man in the Moon, there wasn't really many people you could make friends with. Most of the actual guardians were always busy doing what they were supposed to do, unlike her. "Somehow, I get the feeling we're not actually meant to have friends."

"Strange thing to say," Temp commented. "What makes you think that?"

Catty raised her eyebrows. She would have thought that it was obvious. "Well, there's not really people for us to even make friends with, is there? So it feels like it's kinda supposed to be that way sometimes."

"You mean since you're stuck in this lifestyle, but not actually a guardian like the rest of them," said Temp, making it more of a statement than a question.

"Right." Catty felt like they were going round in circles here.

"Well, who says it has to be that way?" Temp asked, suddenly sounding cheerful.

"What are you even talking about?" Catty was now totally confused. "Nobody says. That's just the way it seems to be."

She had no idea what he was trying to get at. First he'd implied that nobody cared about them if they weren't a guardian. Yet now he was trying to say that things weren't so black and white after all. It was starting to hurt Catty's head. He really needed to pick a tune and stick with it.

At least he seemed to realise that. "I'm confusing you, aren't I?" he said with a rueful grin.

"Just a tad," said Catty dryly.

"I'm sorry," said Temp, and for the first time, he actually sounded sincere. "I guess you could say I find it difficult to try and make friends."

Now that took Catty by surprise. "Wait, you were trying to... make friends with me?"

"Is that weird?" asked Temp, nonplussed.

"I guess not," admitted Catty. "Most people just probably wouldn't be so black and white about it."

"Well, everything's black and white when it comes down to it."

"Right..."

Catty decided not to point out that he'd just contradicted himself once again. After all, it wasn't every day that someone requested friendship so up front. Between Jack and the guardians, Catty had never had much choice in making friends before. How fitting that this strange, new non-guardian had the same idea in mind that she'd always secretly wanted: a friend.

"So how about it?" Temp prompted. "Fancy a friend in this lonely lifestyle?"

Catty laughed. The carefree, eloquent attitude suited him much more, though it was still nice to know that he had a soft side hidden in there somewhere that simply longed for company too. She gave him the first real smile since they'd met. "Sure. Sounds good to me."

She couldn't remember why she'd ever had a problem with him. Or maybe it wasn't that she couldn't remember - maybe there had just never been a reason. He really didn't seem like such a bad guy at all. He must have just always caught her in the grumpy aftermath of run-ins with Jack.

Temp smiled widely back. The expression lit up his entire face, especially those emerald eyes. It was really quite something. "Great!" he exclaimed. "Then in that case, my friend, I look forward to catching you later."

"Oh. You're going already?" said Catty, taken aback. Though she wasn't sure what she'd expected. For them to instantly hang out maybe? It sounded a little juvenile, even in her head.

"Don't worry. We can hang out another time," Temp assured, echoing the thought in her mind. Maybe it wasn't such a juvenile thought after all. "But it isn't just the guardians who have work to do. Am I right?"

"Oh. Right," Catty agreed, once again struck by the question of what Temp's supposed work was. He may have told her a little about his gift, but it didn't explain what it was that he actually did. Catty still felt rude to ask. She was sure she'd find out eventually.

Once again though, Temp seemed to possess the gift of mind reading. "If you had the ability to know what people desire most, then what would you do with it?"

"Err..." Catty wasn't sure. Was that supposed to be a trick question?

"Don't worry, I was just asking rhetorically," Temp laughed. "And in response to the question you wanted to ask, I simply help people get what they want." He chose to leave Catty with that final thought. "I'll see you around, little firefly."

Catty watched him retreat down to the end of the street before taking off in the other direction. She started off flying, but as soon as she'd passed the first few blocks, she was suddenly hit by an overwhelming thought. _That was really weird._ A niggling voice at the back of her mind was practically screaming it at her.

The feeling was so strong that she touched back down onto the sidewalk, lest she flew headlong into something in her distraction. It felt like coming out of a trance. It was as if her mind had been clouded, but she hadn't realised until it had cleared again. She had the uncomfortable feeling that she was being watched, but when she turned around, there was nobody about who even registered that she was there.

Catty leant against a lone streetlight and kneaded her forehead with her palms in frustration, ignoring the few passersby as if she couldn't see them the same way they couldn't see her. What was wrong with her lately? Ever since North had told her and Jack about the strange new guardians popping up out of nowhere, she hadn't stopped thinking about it.

North had advised her to be careful. Now she felt like she was starting to become paranoid. Only two minutes ago, she'd been perfectly comfortable talking to Temp. Then as soon as she'd gotten out of range of him, she'd started panicking - believing that his wanting a friend, even though it was just the same as she had, was more than just a happy coincidence. It was just too good to be true.

Catty sighed. She didn't know what to think anymore. All she did know was that she was desperate to understand more, now that her eyes had been opened to the potential of some serious, underlying conspiracies playing out under everyone's noses. And, despite him being her supposed 'friend', she was going to treat her new buddy Temp with caution for now. Just in case.

Geez. Catty practically rolled her eyes at herself. Ever since Temp had started making his appearances and North had butted into her life too, she'd started way over thinking things. Whatever happened to the good old days when her biggest concern had been having another snowdrift dumped on her head?

That was it, Catty decided. She didn't want to be a part of the bigger picture. So she wasn't going to. Simple. Instead, she was going to go about her life as normal, in blissful ignorance of anything foreboding, and just focus on the little things that she was interested in. It was her life after all. And she was the one who had chosen it.

She didn't know why she hadn't thought of that sooner. She'd already decided that whatever the guardians were up to had nothing to do with her. So she was going to carry on believing that. As if proving it even further, she continued to skip further down the street, now feeling much better about the situation.

She skipped straight through several people on the street, not even trying to avoid them. She didn't care. She didn't need them and she didn't need the other guardians. All she needed was her fireworks, her ability to find her own means of entertainment, and her...

Catty's foot suddenly slid out from underneath her and she toppled over sideways as she tried to regain her balance. She landed flat on the cold sidewalk. To anyone else, it would have seemed strange that there was only one patch of ice in the middle of otherwise dry paving, but of course, Catty knew better.

She rolled back up onto her feet, tugging her dress straight and glaring across the street. Jack was stood on the opposite side, leaning against his wooden staff and lazily bouncing a snowball in his free hand, looking the epitome of casual. The smug grin on his face ruined the innocent image.

"I guess it's true. You never can teach an old dog new tricks," Catty said loudly, feeling irritable that this wasn't the first or even fifth time he'd pulled that one on her.

"Why learn new tricks when the old ones work so well?" replied Jack, ignoring the jibe. "I couldn't give you even _more_ to keep up with."

"That's it..." Catty retaliated with a fast series of fireworks. Jack only just dodged out of the way in time. The three fireworks exploded against the wall behind him in consecutive flowers of red, gold and green, making a couple jump who were passing by.

Jack grinned, looking pleased with Catty's reaction. "Well... Come and get me." He levitated up into the air. "Or don't you have a second wave to follow with?"

"Oh, you are sooo gonna regret that!"

Using her fireworks as boosters, Catty lifted up into the air too and charged at him. Jack took off over the rooftops with Catty in hot pursuit. The fun was all in the chase, but Jack couldn't deny that snowballs had their merits too. He flew along backwards, almost in a lounging position, creating and quickly throwing snowballs up at Catty so that she had to zigzag to avoid them.

One came close to hitting her square in the face, but she was prepared. She met it with a starburst, causing it to explode in a mass of stars and water drops. She then struck back by aiming long lines of gold sparks at Jack with both hands, forcing him to tumble and roll out of the way.

He turned back right side up and put on a burst of speed, zooming straight through the neighbouring town and onto the next. Catty pushed herself to keep up. She couldn't aim very well at higher speeds, but she shot off a couple more starbursts anyway - flying straight through the glittering imprints that they left behind in the sky.

Now this was more like it. Catty could forget about all the conspiracy possibilities just as long as she was flying and throwing fireworks. Things may have been changing, but her war with Jack was one constant she could rely on. She realised this somewhat grudgingly. She didn't like the idea of relying on Jack in any way, shape or form.

But if there was one way to clear her head, it was getting down to some _fun_.

Jack iced a twisting pathway along one of the back streets. He touched down onto the ground, took a running start and launched himself onto his creation. He slid along the icy stretch like a professional skater, knees bent to improve his balance, his bare feet gliding across the smooth surface. Ice was his element and he was at one with it. He laughed and called to Catty to keep up.

What a show-off, Catty though. Keep up? She had a much better idea. With Jack's attention on his new slide, she darted sideways onto the next block before continuing in the same direction. She could guess that Jack would continue along the same straight street on his stupid course of ice. She just had to beat him to the end.

Using both hands to propel herself along with fireworks as added boosters, she put on an extra spurt of speed as she zoomed past block after block. She couldn't just keep up - she needed to overtake. When she was sure she must have gained the lead by now, she cut back through one of the side roads and onto the back street again.

Her timing couldn't have been more perfect. Catty emerged from the side road just as Jack was reaching the same junction. She blasted as much heat as she could muster at the icy pathway ahead of him, instantly melting it to steam and water. Jack wasn't able to react quick enough.

His momentum was still determined to carry him forward, even as his feet met the hard friction of the rough ground. He tumbled literally head over heels several metres along the street before rolling to a stop. Irritated, he scrambled to his feet, preparing an extra large snowball in retaliation.

Getting up cost him valuable seconds though and Catty beat him to it, throwing a lurid red firecracker in his direction. He yelped as it burst in his face, blinding him with bright stars and glitter - the heat also effectively disintegrating his snowball.

"Try and keep up, my ass," said Catty smugly, landing lightly on the ground. "I think you're the one who needs to keep up."

"And you always say I fight dirty." Still trying to blink away stars, Jack blindly shot an arc of ice in the direction of Catty's voice.

Catty neatly avoided it, back-flipping up onto the top of the closest parked car. "Gotta aim before you shoot," she taunted in a singsong voice.

She turned to slide down the back of the Honda's streamlined body when a figure standing at the nearest corner caught her eye. As she turned back for another look, the figure disappeared down the side street, but not before she got a glimpse of a red shirt and black hair. Was that Temp? But he'd said he had things to do - what the hell was he doing here?

_Wham_. A snowball hit Catty so hard in the side of the head that it knocked her clean off the car. She'd barely hit the sidewalk behind it when she was already dragging herself back to her feet. Jack appeared round the bumper of the car, practically doubled over through laughing.

"That was hilarious!" he chortled. "Did you really think it would be a good idea to stop paying attention?"

Catty flicked wet hair out of her eyes and impatiently pushed past him. "Time out," she huffed.

Jack turned, his eyebrows raised, gaze following her in amusement. "What; is that how this works now? What if I decide to ignore you and snowball you in the back?"

"Will you just, for once, not be such a Jack- _ass_!" Catty snapped over her shoulder, storming down to the corner where she'd seen the figure in red and black disappear.

"Oh, very original," Jack sarcastically called after her.

Catty ignored him. She was much more interested in where Temp had gone. She was sure it had been him. Though whoever it was, they definitely weren't there anymore. Catty even walked halfway down the side street, but there was nobody else in sight.

She bit her lip, feeling troubled. It had to have been Temp - who else would have been watching them? But why? Had he been following her? She'd already been struck by the feeling that somebody was watching her earlier on. Whatever was happening, she didn't like it. It was making her feel really on edge.

"What on earth are you looking for?" Jack had followed Catty onto the side street. He tried to sound casual, but he was curious. This was definitely a new one. Normally, they just threw snowballs and fireworks at each other until one of them gave up or got bored.

Catty didn't notice. She was still chewing her lip, unsure what to do. She didn't know what exactly was happening - or if it was even a problem - she just knew that she didn't like not knowing more. She definitely couldn't ask Temp about it. And she didn't know if she could trust any of the guardians either. They'd certainly never been interested in her until they'd wanted her help. That left one more person she could talk to.

Reluctantly, without looking away from the street ahead of her, Catty asked, "Have you seen anyone new around lately? Anyone... like us?"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Why?"

Catty frowned, though it was more at herself. "I don't know. I just... feel like there's something more going on."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Lemme guess. You teamed up with North and the guardians on their little scheme to find Cupid or whatever. Now they've got you helping to try and talk me into it as well."

"Actually, I told him no too," said Catty coolly.

"Oh..." Jack couldn't quite hide his surprise. But then he'd took off before he'd heard what Catty had had to say. "Then... why are you asking me?"

"Because I'm starting to wonder if I made the right decision by saying no," said Catty, still frowning to herself. "I'm not going to pretend to like you. But I know that at least we're in the same boat. I guess I just wanted a second opinion."

Amazingly, Jack didn't comment on her wanting his help. Instead, he just said, "I've already made my thoughts on the guardians clear. None of them care about us."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Though Catty still didn't sound sure. If she went by what Jack said, then she had made the right decision. The guardians didn't care about them, so they were simply returning the favour. But something just still didn't sit right. It was an uncomfortable feeling that she knew was going to gnaw at her until she got some real answers.

Jack grew impatient. "Look, if you wanna team up with the guardians, then do whatever you want. I don't care. I'm just not going to do the same."

Catty sighed. She should have known that talking to someone so stubborn was futile. "Fine, whatever. I'm off then. I don't feel like fighting anymore."

"Yeah, yeah, just throw in the towel," muttered Jack, though he didn't really seem to care. But just as Catty lifted up into the air, he said more loudly, "Wait..." Catty stopped and turned in mid-air, looking at him expectantly. "Can I ask you a question?"

Catty shrugged, nonplussed, and landed back on the ground. "What?"

"Has the Man in the Moon ever spoken to you more than just the once?" Jack asked, somewhat hesitantly.

Catty frowned again. "What are you talking about? I thought the Man in the Moon only spoke to the guardians."

Jack stared at her in surprise and Catty realised what he was implying. "Wait, he's spoken to you?" she questioned, just as he asked, "He's _never_ spoken to you?" Jack's brow knitted together in confusion as he added, "Yeah, but only once." 

Catty was amazed. The Man in the Moon had spoken to Jack? But why not her too? What was so special about Jack? "Well... what did he say to you?"

"He just told me my name," replied Jack, shrugging. "That was it."

Catty didn't believe him. "No, really, what did he say to you?"

"What? That was it!" insisted Jack, not sure why she thought he was lying.

Catty raised her eyebrows. "Why would he need to tell you your name? Didn't you know that already?"

"Of course I didn't. I didn't know anything before I was... well, me. Before I was Jack Frost," Jack explained uncertainly.

Catty gaped at him. He was really telling the truth. But how was that possible? Jack suddenly understood why she was so surprised and they both started speaking at the same time again. "Wait, you had a past before you were like this?"

"Stop speaking over me!" Catty accused impatiently, before repeating her question. "How can you not have known who you were? Don't you know where you came from?"

"I don't know anything!" said Jack. "I know my name and that's it. Why aren't you the same?"

"Well... I guess you must have been chosen for this by somebody else," Catty thought aloud, only theorising. "Whereas me... Well, I chose this life for myself."

"Hang on, you _chose_ it?" Jack repeated incredulously. "Who could possibly choose a lonely life like this where nobody can ever see them?" He said the last part bitterly, but Catty wasn't going to let him begrudge her her life decision.

"Hey, I have my own reasons, okay?" Catty retorted hotly. "Has it ever occurred to you that some people just don't want to be seen? So don't try and act like you know me."

She was done with this. She made to fly off a second time, but Jack stopped her once again, this time going as far as to jump into the air too and block her path. "Wait!"

"Now what?"

"When you asked me if I'd seen anyone like us..." said Jack. "You meant as in _not_ a guardian, right?"

Catty could see now that she'd put that seed of doubt into Jack's head too. For the first time, they'd actually both revealed something about themselves. And it turned out that they weren't quite so similar after all. Catty didn't know how Jack had become Jack Frost, but it sounded like it must have been a very different start to hers. And from the sounds of it, he'd gotten the worse hand out of the two of them. It wasn't surprising that he'd want answers too.

"I think so. I'm not entirely sure," Catty confessed. She felt loathed to say anything specific about Temp. If it did turn out that she was being paranoid and that he really did just want to be friends, then she knew she'd feel guilty for accusing him to her supposed arch enemy. So instead, she just said vaguely, "I've just seen some new faces around. And as much as I don't want to admit it, I think North was right when he said that things are changing."

Jack actually looked thoughtful, making Catty wonder if he'd started seeing these new non-guardians too. He slowly landed back on the ground. "So you want to find out more about what's going on, but without joining up with the guardians?"

"Kind of," Catty admitted, following suit. Her boots lightly touched the asphalt. "I've already decided that I don't want to be a part of their group. But I still want to know what's happening."

"What about the Man in the Moon? He must be somehow involved if he told North that he's not the one choosing these new guardians," Jack pointed out. "Don't you want to learn more about him too?"

Catty shrugged. "I guess so."

She couldn't deny that Jack had a good point. And she had to admit that she was now intrigued to know why the Man in the Moon had never bothered to speak to her. She didn't really like the idea of Jack being shown favouritism - even if his beginning in this life had been very different to hers.

"Okay, I'm in," Jack decided.

"Excuse me?"

"How about a temporary truce?" Jack suggested with an innocent look that Catty didn't trust for a second. He held out his hand. "Until we can find out more about what there is to all of this."

Catty eyed his hand warily. "I think you're jumping ahead of yourself. All I wanted was an opinion; not a sidekick."

"Sidekick?" Jack's eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline. "I'm offering my expertise here - which I have a lot more of than you, by the way - so that makes you the sidekick."

"Wait, wait, wait, who was the one who started all of this?" Catty reminded him. "And who said I even want your so-called 'expertise'?"

"I think you're passing up a golden opportunity here," said Jack. "Do you even know where North's workshop is?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because that has to be where the guardians keep base when they need to convene," Jack decided. It seemed like the most logical idea. "We can go and find out more of what they know without having to team up with them."

Catty frowned, feeling suspicious. She could hear the excitement rising in Jack's voice. "If that's what you're so excited to do, then why don't you just go and do that yourself? What do you need me for?"

"Well, I've never actually been able to get in before," replied Jack. "North has these yetis as security, so I kinda need something to distract them."

"So you want me to be a decoy?" Catty deduced, unimpressed.

"Eh, we can work out the finer details later. So are you in or what?" Jack asked impatiently. "North's hideout is gonna be the best place to find out more about what's going on and you know it."

His hand hadn't wavered. His bright blue eyes were now alight with mischief. Catty could see that this had suddenly become Jack's new idea for fun; a way to score some laughs. She just really hoped that the joke wasn't going to be on her.

"Fine. But only if nobody is the sidekick," said Catty, reluctantly shaking Jack's hand. It was smooth and cold. Go figure. "And if you try any funny business, then I swear I'm gonna shoot a firework right up your-"

"Spare me the details, alright?" Jack cut across her. "Let's meet up back here tomorrow morning and we can stage the first break-in."

Catty didn't like how Jack was already trying to take charge. She knew it was petty, but she couldn't believe she'd agreed to even team up with him; let alone take orders from him. "What makes you think that you're the one calling the shots?"

"You think you can do this on your own? Be my guest," said Jack with a shrug.

"Hey, you were the one who was suddenly eager to get me on board," Catty pointed out. "You can't do this alone either."

"Yeah, well you were the one who came and found me in the first place," Jack argued.

"I didn't come and find you! All I asked for was a second opinion!" Catty insisted.

Jack just grinned cantankerously. "Sorry, but that's not gonna fly. And speaking of flying..." He flipped back up into the air to make his point. "I have some snow days to put into place. I'll see you tomorrow, fireworks girl."

No, no, no. Jack was not going to leave and have the last word. "You'll be lucky if you see the sun come up," Catty growled, a starburst materialising in her hand.

"Ah, ah, it's a truce, remember?" Jack pointed out, still grinning. "No fireworks."

Catty glared up at him, the starburst intensifying in her hand. "Then get out of my way and I won't have to shoot you with it."

Jack laughed, but he heeded her warning. "Don't forget; tomorrow morning." And with that, he flew off, disappearing up into the clouds.

As soon as he was out of sight, Catty threw the starburst at the nearest wall, scowling to herself as it exploded into a gold flower. Damn that Jack Frost... She had a feeling that she was really going to regret this decision.


End file.
